Baby Bottles of the type intended for reuse, that is of glass or an equivalent rigid synthetic resinous material capable of being washed and sterilized, have conventionally been provided with rather narrow mouths.
The narrow mouth, or more particularly the mouth rim, directly receives the annular flange of a conventional nipple which is in turn sealed to the rim by a mounting collar.
In order to facilitate cleaning of the bottles, it has been proposed to provide bottles with wide mouths, that is mouths with a diametric dimension only slightly less than that of the bottle itself. A bottle so formed is easily cleaned and sterilized, with the interior of the bottle readily visible through the wide mouth and with the actual filling of the bottle greatly simplified.
However, a problem arises in accommodating the conventionally sized nipples to the wide mouth bottles. One solution to this problem involves the use of removable adapters which can overlie and project inwardly of the mouth rim to provide a support for the conventional nipples.
The provision of an adapter, while allowing use of a conventional size nipple, also gives rise to problems. Most particularly, it is not an infrequent occurrence that the nipple is mounted to the bottle without first positioning the adapter. Basically, the nipple is lightly frictionally retained within the mounting cap and the cap and nipple mounted as a unit. As such, the nipple will appear to be properly seated even in the absence of the adapter. However, the absence of the adapter will become immediately apparent in that as the bottle is inverted or as soon as any pressure is applied to the nipple, the nipple will retract into the bottle through the wide mouth and the liquid in the bottle will discharge in an uncontrolled manner. Thus, the proper positioning of the adapter is essential.